Blog Post
Weekly.
Stories.
Articulating the strategy
Hans Faber • 8 maart 2021
Never write about a subject you don't understand
The question I often get: can you articulate our story, our strategy or our strategic review? Often the question comes from boards of companies or organizations. They know exactly where they want to go with the company, know the market better than anyone else, but get stuck when things have to be put on paper in an understandable and clear way.
That's how 10Days came to me. 10Days is an Amsterdam fashion company that sells internationally. Thanks to the Covid pandemic, the company is doing very well. Their comfort meets style collections are in great demand among homeworkers. Whether I could help the new CEO put her strategic review on paper. I certainly could, after which the request came fairly quickly if I could rewrite the corporate story of 10Days and study the stories that the company has to tell the outside world. Stories in which the media are interested, such as De Telegraaf.
Formulating complex matters in a clear way. It is a challenge every time. Whenever I get such a challenge, I think of the words of Bert van Kalles. When I came to work at Het Financieele Dagblad as a 23-year-old, this very experienced journalist instilled in me: “If you don't understand, you can't write it down”. A wise lesson that I still apply.
